Connex shunted off

ONLY Connex, the much criticised train operator, seems to have been disappointed yesterday by the news that its South Central franchise, which includes the London to Brighton route, will not be renewed.

Both passenger groups and many in the industry appeared delighted that the company will be the first train operator to suffer such a fate. Passengers may have to wait some time for any change, let alone improvement, given that it could be more than a year before French-owned Connex has to hand over to partially French-owned Govia. Connex also still has its South Eastern franchise, which runs for 15 years, and is almost equally appalling. But kicking the company off even one of its services should at least encourage the rest.

The bigger question is whether any more can be read into it than that. In the wake of the Hatfield crash, Gerald Corbett, the chief executive of Railtrack, has been just one of many voices calling for consolidation among rail companies. Even the Conservatives now accept that, at privatisation, responsibility was split among too many operators and contractors. Yet Labour, in office, has never seriously contemplated either renationalising the railways or radically reorganising them. Nor, despite all the talk, has anyone else. Sir Alastair Morton's Strategic Rail Authority might take the lead, but without overt ministerial support it is hard to see how. Railtrack, meanwhile, is confined to owning and operating the track.

All of which means that any significant change will have to be left to an ad hoc mixture of regulation and the market. And that does seem to be what is happening. Earlier this year, the SRA announced that it would reduce the number of train-operating franchises from 25 to 21. But takeovers and mergers among the operators themselves mean that there are now only three big players left in the market, and half a dozen or so smaller ones. Yesterday's decision on Connex, meanwhile, shows that the weaker companies can expect little leeway from the regulators. If there is to be a similar, organic reorganisation of the way the track is maintained and operated, then this will have to be led by Railtrack.

It is not the sort of solution that is likely to appeal to safety or transport campaigners, let alone Labour backbenchers. But it might have the advantage of working.